Journey Through the Savage Forest
---- Maji Ishi walked through a grassy field towards the edge of the infamous forest. Behind her was Rayden Shinsei, and trailing behind him was Quinn Pernelle; together the trio formed one of the teams in search of the title of an S-Class wizard. While Maji kept her face down, buried under her sunhat, Rayden held his head high, snacking on a granola bar as small sparks of electricity ran their way across his skin. "So. I hear they call you Crybaby. You don't look like a baby to me, so, what's your name?" he asked, addressing the first of his female companions. Maji's body tensed as the man next to her spoke. She pushed her hat down even more, before responding in a very hushed tone. "Maji... I don't really have any nicknames, so Maji is fine..." After talking, Maji realized that her group had reached the edge of the forest, and she halted in her tracks. "Are you guys, um, ready" Maji whispered. "I'm always charged up and ready to go!" Ray smiled, finishing his bar. He began walking toward the forest, deciding that he would be the first to go in. "Let's just see what it's got in store for us. Finding a scroll shouldn't be too hard, right?" His thousand-watt grin wasn't dampened until he took his first step into the forest. A large branch swung around quickly as Rayden's eyes widened to meet it. As he charged his body with lightning he stepped backward, barely missing the rapidly swinging tree branch. "Shit." He sad as he fell onto his behind. Maji continued walking past Rayden, who was now lying on the ground. Unlike Rayden however, Maji was not a victim of the trees harassment, and she simply continued down her path, trees seemingly ignoring her presence. She halted in her tracks when she realized that neither of her teammates were following her, but were instead standing at the edge of the forest. Not bothering to turn to face her teammates, Maji simply muttered, "You guys can follow me; if you do, they won't hurt you." Rayden and Quinn were both seemingly taken aback by the fact that the trees not only were passive to Maji but also that she referred to the plants as "they". Quinn raised an eyebrow, unsure of whether or not to follow Maji. But not trusting her teammate wasn't exactly the best plan, especially not when they were about to enter the Savage Forest. So she nodded, taking a step forward only to realize that they did, in fact, stop attacking. Quinn smiled, walking forward towards Maji freely. "That's pretty cool Maji," she commented. She had heard that Maji had some sort of Wood Magic, but if anything, she would have thought the trees would be attracted to her. She gained a sense of reassurance from it. This would be her first S-Class trial since joining Koma Inu, so she was determined to prove herself. "We need to be cautious." Rayden walked into the forest, chattering excitedly, "Wow! You're just like Nolan... Hm.. Plant Girl! That's a better nickname than Crybaby, isn't it?" He was smiling on the outside, and his cheeks started to hurt from the effort. Rayden signed softly. His eye ached. It was still swollen from his fight over a week ago and bandages were still wrapped tightly around his chest. He put his hand in his back pocket, making sure that his knuckle dusters were within it. If he got into a fight, he would want to have them handy. After a while, Maji still walked in front of the pair, moving at a faster rate than she usually would, to avoid any sort of eye-to-''eyes contact. Her rapid pace and inability to sense depth, seemingly led her straight into the arms of danger, as one second she was there, and another she fell into the pit their proctors had previously set up. Maji's eye widened as she saw herself plummeting towards the bottom. "Look out!" Rayden shouted, sparks of lightning flying off of his body as he sprinted forward. His body moved quickly and he was on the edge of the pit within an instant, gripping her forearm tightly. "Hold on!" He said, leaning over the edge. ''Shit. Rayden thought as he began to drag her upwards. "Come on, Maji, we can't let you go this easy." Maji was yanked upwards, with enough force to pull her sunhat off of her head; her only defense against the cold eyes of everyone. As soon as she was able to stand on two feet, Maji quickly shielded her face with her hand, and turned away from the frightened and puzzled Rayden and Quinn. "Ehem... um, thank you. Sorry for being so careless" Maji mumbled. Quinn was surprised when she saw Maji's sunhat fall and almost opened her mouth to gasp. But she restrained herself; obviously, the girl was very insecure about herself and showing reaction would make it even worse. And it wasn't just Maji who had been hiding something either. It wasn't much of a secret, not with his state of appearance anyway. Quinn remembered reading about it earlier this week but she didn't think it would be this bad. "Are you okay?" she asked politely. There was nothing else to say really. Nothing that wouldn't end up hurting either of her teammates. "I'm fine; and just so you know... I am rather good at reading facial expressions. I'm not some sort of circus act, I'm a Monoeye. There is a reason you've never heard of us." Maji whispered, and continued to delve deeper into the forest, leaving a stunned Rayden and Quinn behind. "Hey. Don't just walk off, we're a team, okay?" Rayden caught up to her quickly, walking backward to face her. He wasn't phased by the unusual appearance, he instead let a grin slide back onto his face. "I don't care what you look like, as long as you're a good guy, you're a friend in my book!" Rayden quickly changed direction, sliding back to a comfortable spot alongside Maji as the environment around them seemed to open a path through the forest. "You've got a cool talent you know? What magic is it? I mean I know it's something plant related, but what?" He asked, attempting to keep the conversation in motion. Maji halted in her tracks, and held her arm out to stop Rayden from moving any further. Maji lifted her head up and turned to her left, where a purple flower had sprouted from a nearby tree. "Yeah, just as I sensed... Drescia Sinensis" Maji looked cautiously at the flower, and noticed that it was very ready to release its numbing spores onto any passerby. Maji reached into a pocket sewn on the inside of her sweater, and pulled out what appeared to be a small toy frog. Winding its back, Maji set the frog onto the ground, where it waddled over to the plant Maji was referring to; sure enough, the flower released its spores onto the frog, whom of course, was unaffected. However, the frog's danger sensors where activated, and it soon created a small firecracker-like explosion, that destroyed the flower completely. Quinn watched silently as Maji released a... toy? frog. She had read about the "Drescia Sinensis" as Maji as stated. It released some sort of pollen that could temporarily cut off a person's voice. The frog exploded, destroying any chance of exposure. "I, I didn't mean to offend you," Quinn stated, staying clear of the area in case any pollen remained in the air. "I was just surprised. Like Rayden said, appearance doesn't matter. As long -" She paused midway, eyes hardened as she listened carefully. "I can hear something coming. Lots of growling." She took two sets of headphones our from her bag, handing each to Maji and Rayden. "Both your powers are cool. And beneficial too. Unfortunately, Sound Magic isn't as beneficial. Please wear these, it'll block out any sound waves." Rayden took the set of headphones and moved away from the women, saying one last phrase before he put his them on. "When I activate this spell, you've gotta stay back, it'll shock anyone around me." After they nodded, Rayden released his magic power activating his Static Aura spell, as black lightning surged around him. The spell strengthened his durability and strength, not to mention the electricity surging around him. Rayden was prepared for the threat to come. Maji mumbled something under her breath, and bark from the surrounding trees were ripped clean off of them, and flying towards Maji. The bark clasped themselves around Maji's body, and layered on top of one another for maximum protection. Maji then put her earphones in, and waited. Another loud growl was heard, and then silence. Soon after, a horde of massive canines shattered the silence and broke through the forest line, barreling towards the trio of wizards. The beasts had bright red eyes that glowed with a ravaging and bloodthirsty hunger, and teeth sharper than glass. Maji took no time to idle around, but instead used her feet to launch herself into the air above the beasts, for an areal assault. Wood God's Katana! In the blink of an eye, Maji ruthlessly beheaded one of the wolves with a razor-sharp wooden katana and intended to do the same to the others. Before she could do that, however, a blunt force struck her from the back and pinned her to the ground. Maji was met with the face of a feral wolf, foaming out the mouth and ready to strike; she was unable to lift the beast off of her, and therefore could not save herself from its ravaging hunger. Rayden shot forward towards one of the massive beasts, his eyes darting to either side, making sure that his teammates were safe. After seeing Maji behead a wolf he began to focus on his own battle and sent a flurry of well-placed, electrically charged blows at the head and neck of one of the massive canines. As his spell faded Rayden looked around in time to see Maji fall to the ground. "Look out!" He called, though he knew she couldn't hear. On instinct Rayden lurched forward, speeding across the area toward the wolf. I can't let anyone else die. He thought frantically. As Rayden reached her he tackled the canine, using his body wieght to knock it away from Maji. A sword made of lightning formed in his hand as Rayden used his Imperial Sword spell and shortly he slammed it into the beast's chest. Although, Rayden didn't escape without a scratch. The beast had torn through the front of his shirt, not only revealing his first tattoo and his scar but three long marks where it had slashed him. Maji lay awestruck on the ground, before coming to a quick realization and picking herself up. She quickly rushed to the side of Rayden, and kneeled beside Quinn. "Oh my god! That's a lot of blood; Umm... er... um, we can use your shirt as makeshift bandages... or, what is left of it" Maji declared. For a split second, Maji thought of signalling the judges, but knew that Rayden was hell-bent on winning the trials, and decided against it. Before ripping off Rayden's shirt, Maji held her hand up to her eye, and seemingly began to cry; Rayden and Quinn initially thought that she was just very emotional, before they saw her reach down and touch Rayden's open wounds, which quickly healed them. The two stood in awe as Maji wrapped the ripped cloth around his wound for extra support, before finishing it off with pat. Quinn didn't stand in awe for much longer. There were still several more wolves approaching and with Rayden injured and Maji... crying?, she would have to fight them off. She preferred avoiding killing anything, even when it came to wolves. So instead of using her wrist razors like she normally would, Quinn took a deep breath, lunging her head forward. "Siren’s Scream!" she shouted, releasing a blast of pure white energy from her mouth. The beam blasted two of the wolves back, knocking them out altogether. The remaining wolves were stunned by the sound, but not enough to sit back confused. Quinn took a deep breath, turning around for the slightest moment to view he condition of her teammate; Rayden had somehow been healed; by Maji she suspected. "Guys, I need your help," she spoke, looking back to the wolves. Only 3 wolves remained, and Maji intended on subduing all of them. Maji pulled a card out of her sweater pocket, gold in coloration with a blue raindrop on the front. Holding the card out in front of her with two fingers, Maji looked on as the card created a burst of water with extreme pressure, that wiped out the remainder of the wolves. Rayden watched his wounds heal and attempted to smile. "Good. You're not hurt." He was embarrassed. Not only had he don't something reckless and stupid, but now his tattoo was there for all to see. After watching Maji rise, Rayden did the same. It ached to walk, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. As the trio continued through the forest Rayden was uncharacteristically silent. He had been useless. He had been stupid, and now it was eating him alive. So, he spoke. "I'm sorry. I risked your life with my antic. I apologize." "No; I'm... I'm sorry." Maji turned the other way, and began to walk out of the forest "I realized now, that maybe I'm not meant for S-Class; Maybe I'm not even meant for Koma Inu. Maybe I'll return to Beastiae, back home. I wish you two the best of luck." Maji forfeited once she reached the edge of the forest. Quinn watched silently as Maji walked away. It wasn't really her place to say what Maji should or shouldn't do so she kept quiet and accepted the girl's decision. "So I guess it's just me and you now," Quinn muttered, turning to face Rayden. She noticed the tattoo on Rayden's chest, but decided it would be best to just keep quiet. "Maji, wait!" Rayden called out, but before he could say anything else, Maji disappeared. Rayden turned back to Quinn, catching her eyes on his chest. "If you want to know, just ask. The news always lies." He said curtly, biting his tongue at his aggresive tone. Quickly correcting himself he continued speaking. "I'm sorry, that was rude. Um, we've got to keep going, plus. The trees are coming again, we don't have Maji's magic to protect us." Quinn nodded, rushing forward knowing that Rayden would follow. She now knew that it was a touchy subject, and even in her curiosity, kept quiet. Her eyes were fixated on the trees, observing every sway to make sure that none could gain the upper hand. Now that Maji was gone, the two would be at a bit of a handicap, so they would have to stay even more alert. "So, what do you think we should do?" Quinn asked, not moving her eyes from the expanse of trees. Written in black ink on the fresh parchment was a set of instructions for the group: "We congratulate you on making your way through the forest, overcoming each obstacle that stood in you way. But perhaps now is the the most difficult challenge of all. As your final task for this round, before you exit the forest, you must each cast a vote as to who you feel should be eliminated from your team. '' As an S Class Mage you must be someone who can be looked up to as a leader, and respected as such. You must be the one who can support your team, and make those tough calls when no one else can; regardless of the backlash that may come. At the beginning you were instructed to pick teammates, deducing who would be the best fit for any obstacle that may lay ahead. Now it is time for you to analyze such choices and decide who did not fully meet the expectations necessary to advance in such a difficult conquest. '' We ask that you please write down your vote on this parchment and turn it into one of the judges upon your exit of the forest. After all teams have made it through the forest we will announce who shall advance, as well as the updated point standings." Category:Roleplay Category:RP Category:S-Class Trials Category:QOS Roleplay